We woke up this morning and walked the .8 miles to the NOC and excitement rushed through us. There were people walking in and out of the outfitters! We rushed across the street. “Are you guys open today???” I asked. “Not until tomorrow, but if you need something we might be able to help you out!” A woman said cheerfully. The next few days were supposed to be extremely cold and I asked if they had any thermal pants. I was in luck. I shall be warm for the Smokey’s! Since it was May, I had thought things would have warmed up but boy oh boy was I wrong. We then walked to the local food mart to resupply for our 6 day trek to Gatlinburg, TN. Never go resupply shopping when you’re hungry. You will end up spending twice the amount you should have and a food bag heavier than everything in your pack combined. My eyes scanned the aisles for everything and anything I could think of. I grabbed the good ole ramen, salmon packets, candy bars, oatmeal, pop tarts, protein bars, chips, and a soda. Only the essentials. We piled in to the lodge owner’s car and drive the mile to the lodge. “We have a pizza place down the street and I’ll bring ya a pizza when I close up” Cindy said. But that was 6 hours away. There was no way we were going to wait that long. As soon as we showered, we set off to the pizza place and all buy our own pizzas. They were gone in minutes. Morning always came too soon. We packed up and set off back to the trail. We had a 14 mile day to get us to Stecoah Gap. Immediately the trail climbed 8 miles to Cheoah Bald. I don’t know if it was the pizza, or just the climb, but I was winded instantly. ”I regret eating an entire pizza!” I yelled up the trail. I lagged behind huffing and puffing as my calf muscles screamed. By the half way mark and I felt as if couldn’t take another step. “Come on you
can do it. Just a little further and you’ll be there” Danny said. Thank the sweet mountain gods that he is there to encourage me. Without him I would’ve probably given up a mile back. The trail was only a couple PUDS here and there after that climb. As we made our decent, we started talking about Shenandoah National Park. “People aquablaze the Shenandoahs” Danny said. “What does that mean?”Kyle asked. “You raft it instead of hiking it!” Dan replied. “That sounds amazing we need to do that” Kyle said. “The only problem is it’s $200” I chimed in. “....what about freedom? I want to ride down the river without a permit because this is America” Kyle demanded. We all bursted out laughing. Kyle Carson for president 2024 with that as the catch phrase. “What about freedom” Kyle Carson for president.
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